St. Paul: Troubled American Legion post up for sale

In 1996, then-St. Paul City Council member Jerry Blakey listened to neighbors of the Attucks Brooks American Legion Post recite a long list of complaints about suspected drug sales and other illegal activity there.

"It disturbs me, the level I have seen this organization sink to," Blakey said at the time, remarking how the legion's famed ball team had once grown Major League Baseball greats. "It was partly responsible in the past for producing people like (Baseball Hall of Famer) Dave Winfield."

The long, slow death of American Legion Post No. 606 appears almost over. The building, at 976 Concordia Ave. near Chatsworth Street, is up for sale again after years of run-ins with City Hall and a double shooting outside its doors this summer.

The one-story brick-and-stone building was built in 1966, according to Ramsey County tax records, and has an estimated market value of $309,000. The building was last sold Oct. 31 to Anicca, LCC of Grand Avenue in St. Paul for $199,000. On Monday, the building was advertised on Coldwell Banker Burnet's website for a sale price of $275,000.

Officials with the closed American Legion post could not be reached for comment; a working phone number also could not be found.

A spokesman for the city's Department of Safety and Inspections said city inspectors were familiar with the post, and not in a good way, but the city did not play a direct role in shutting down the once-popular bar and nightclub.

Advertisement

In the 1960s, the Attucks Brooks American Legion team coached Winfield in his youth, as well as future baseball Hall of Famer Paul Molitor. The location has since popped up on the radar of city officials for less glorious reasons. On June 27, two men sitting in a parked SUV near its front door were injured when a third man approached and opened fire. That wasn't the first time the American Legion had drawn the attention of police.

In December, the St. Paul City Council voted 4-3 to fine the bar $500 and suspend its license for 5 days for serving alcohol during a month-long lapse in its liquor liability insurance and for hosting a disc jockey and dancing without an entertainment license. At the time, the post commander denied that the post had offered a DJ and dancing.

Council members Kathy Lantry, Dan Bostrom and Lee Helgen voted in the minority, saying the penalty did not go far enough.

The bar was previously fined $1,000 for license violations in August 2009 and fined again in November 2009. Its license was suspended for 10 days on both occasions.

In January 2009, St. Paul police responded to a report of an attempted robbery and shooting at the post and found a gunshot victim dying in the alley behind it. The victim, a regular at the bar, did not survive.